The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced plans to sell the government’s remaining shares of Detroit-based automaker General Motors in the latest in a recent string of moves by the administration to unwind controversial taxpayer bailouts stemming from the financial crisis.

Although the sale will allow the federal government to unload its investments in the auto industry company, it will almost certainly do so at a loss to taxpayers worth billions of dollars.

Treasury plans to sell its 500.1 million shares over the next 12 to 15 months, with GM buying 200 million at $27.50 per share by the end of the year. This sale will bring in $5.5 billion toward the $27 billion that the company still owes.

In an October report, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program estimated Treasury would need to sell the remaining 500 million shares at $53.98 per share to break even on its investment.

“This announcement is an important step in bringing closure to the successful auto industry rescue, it further removes the perception of government ownership of GM among customers, and it demonstrates confidence in GM’s progress and our future,” GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said in a statement.

The automobile industry rescue that began under President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama became a critical component of this year’s presidential election.

Obama’s campaign touted the bailout while Mitt Romney was on the defensive over opposition he outlined in a 2008 New York Times op-ed “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

“If we had taken your advice, Gov. Romney, about our auto industry, we’d be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China,” Obama said during the third presidential debate, which was on foreign policy.

Romney also took heat in the final days of the campaign for an ad suggesting that Chrysler was shipping Jeep production to China and implying that the bailout recipients had used the money to hire more workers in China.

The ad was roundly criticized by GM and Chrysler, whose CEO issued a statement insisting that the company was not moving Jeep to China.

Obama went on to win Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

After the initial stock sale, Treasury will own approximately 19 percent of GM’s outstanding shares, down from the 32 percent ownership stake.

An administration official said the White House and Treasury have consistently said the investments in GM would result in a loss.

“That continues to be our view and today’s announcement is consistent with that outcome,” the administration official said.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said that whether the government’s investment in the automaker results in a loss misses the point behind the taxpayer rescue of GM.

“It was about protecting more than 1 million workers whose jobs could have been lost, protecting families and communities that would have been devastated if the domestic auto industry had collapsed, preventing the massive cost the federal government would have had to bear in terms of unemployment insurance and other expenses, and avoiding the very real prospect of a second Great Depression,” Levin said in a statement.

The government also stepped in to help keep Chrysler afloat.

The Special Inspector General for TARP said taxpayers lost $2.9 billion on the Chrysler investment, but Treasury puts the aggregate loss at $1.3 billion after factoring in the $1.6 billion in interest and dividend payments the company paid. SIGTARP maintains those additional payments were separate obligations under TARP and should not be used to offset losses on initial investments.

Christy Romero, special inspector general for TARP, said the government’s estimates have always anticipated a loss on its GM investment. She said it is critical Treasury “not put GM’s exit on autopilot” over the next 12 to 15 months.

“For taxpayers’ investment in GM to have an enduring impact, Treasury must keep a laser focus on stability in the American automotive industry, so that we don’t end up back in the same place,” Romero said in a statement.

Since the rescue, GM said in a news release Wednesday, the company has announced investments of more than $7.3 billion in the United States and has created or retained more than 20,000 jobs.

Treasury put $49.5 billion into GM in 2008 and 2009 and has so far recovered $28.7 billion, if GM’s purchase of the 200 million shares set to close by year’s end is included. The remainder will be sold to others starting in January.

Treasury is in the process of exiting other bailout positions.

On Dec. 10, Treasury said it agreed to sell its final shares of insurer American International Group, to which at one point Treasury and the Federal Reserve had committed $182.3 billion. The government stepped in to rescue AIG from the brink of collapse in 2008.

On Monday, a Treasury official said the department expects to divest most of its TARP bank investments by the end of the year. Treasury invested $245 billion in 707 banks through TARP’s Capital Purchase Program and has recovered $268 billion.

Despite the losses on its auto industry investments, Treasury officials have continued to tout TARP’s success. To date, the government has recovered more than 90 percent, or $381 billion of the $418 billion in funds disbursed through TARP, they noted in the GM announcement.